Types of therapy
What each approach involves, what a session is like, who it tends to suit, what the evidence says and how to find it in Australia. For most common difficulties, how you get on with the person you see matters at least as much as the approach they use. Knowing the approaches still helps you narrow down who to speak to.
Start here
- ReadTypes of therapyWhy there are so many kinds of therapy, where each one starts, what the research says about whether the type matters, and how to use that when you choose.
- ReadWhy therapists differWhy two therapists can offer quite different things: training, profession, where they work, who they see and what Medicare rebates, and what to ask.
- CompareCBT vs ACTHow cognitive behavioural therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy differ, what each does with the same problem, what the evidence says, and how people choose between them.
- CompareEMDR vs talking therapies for traumaHow EMDR compares with the talking-based trauma therapies — cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure and trauma-focused CBT — and with general counselling, including how much you have to say out loud.
Approaches, A to Z
Each approach is marked by the ways it mainly works. Many work in more than one way.
- Thoughts and actions
- Patterns and your history
- Feelings and the body
- ReadACT explainedA practical talking therapy, said as the word "act". It helps you live well alongside hard thoughts and feelings, instead of waiting for them to go away first.Thoughts and actionsFeelings and the body
- ReadBehavioural activationA therapy that works on what you do. You and your therapist look at what a week actually contains, then plan specific things back into it. The planning comes first, and the motivation is expected to follow.Thoughts and actions
- ReadCBT adapted for ADHDA version of CBT adapted for ADHD. It focuses on day-to-day organisation and self-management: planning, setting priorities and breaking big tasks into smaller steps.Thoughts and actions
- ReadCBT explainedA structured, practical form of talking therapy. It's built on a simple idea: what you think affects how you feel, and both affect what you do.Thoughts and actions
- ReadCompassion-focused therapyA therapy developed for people with a lot of shame and self-criticism. It helps you build a supportive, caring relationship with yourself in place of a blaming, critical one.Thoughts and actionsFeelings and the body
- ReadDBT explainedA structured therapy for people whose emotions come on hard and fast, and who find it hard to settle again. It teaches practical skills, in a set order, for staying present, getting through a crisis, managing strong emotions and handling other people.Thoughts and actionsFeelings and the body
- ReadEMDR explainedA structured therapy for memories that still feel raw. You bring a painful memory to mind for short stretches while your attention is split, usually by following your therapist's hand as it moves from side to side. The aim is for the memory to become less upsetting.Feelings and the body
- ReadGroup therapyA trained professional, sometimes two, working with several people at once. It's a way of running therapy, and many approaches work in groups.
- ReadIFS explainedA therapy that starts from the idea that your mind isn't one voice. It treats having different parts as normal, and works with those parts directly.Patterns and your historyFeelings and the body
- ReadNarrative therapy explainedA therapy built on one principle: you are not the problem, the problem is the problem. It works on the story you tell about your life, including what that story leaves out.Patterns and your historyFeelings and the body
- ReadPerson-centred therapy explainedA therapy where you set the agenda. Your therapist follows where you go and stays with it, on the idea that being properly heard, by someone who isn't judging you, is itself the treatment.Feelings and the body
- ReadPsychedelic-assisted therapyA treatment overseen by approved psychiatrists, where a measured dose of a psychedelic drug is given to support psychological treatment. In Australia it's rare and expensive, and it isn't a first treatment.
- ReadPsychodynamic therapy explainedA therapy that looks at the parts of your life you can't quite see from the inside. Its core idea is that a lot of what shapes how you feel and act sits outside your awareness, and was laid down early.Patterns and your historyFeelings and the body
- ReadSchema therapyA longer-term talking therapy that works on deep, long-standing patterns. A schema is a deep belief about yourself and other people, formed early, that shapes how you read situations.Patterns and your historyFeelings and the body
- ReadSomatic therapies explainedTalking therapies that pay close attention to the body. "Somatic" just means bodily. They work less with what you think about something and more with what your body does when it comes up.Feelings and the body
- ReadTrauma-focused CBTA family of talking therapies that work directly on the memory of something that happened, using the ideas of CBT.Thoughts and actions